more ponderings from a sleepy, twisted right- hipped Mamma.........

Not sleeping well two nights in a row has an unwelcome side effect on almost all facets of life, not the least of which is ability to think clear or complete thoughts long enough to know if they ARE clear and complete!!
We are all missing Sopheak so much. She sent a sweet sweet face book message to us when she got back home. I'll save that in my SOPHEAK file because its not a note I want to lose.
We are gearing up for a new school year, inventory-ing the curriculum on hand to see what we need to order. That's alwasy exciting and with two possible co-op classes this year for everyone, I think its going to be a fun school year. Since (21 gun salute, fire works, send up the helium balloons, play "Pomp and Cicumstance" here, NOW!!!) my youngest three all mastered reading this last year, we can do so much more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Naomi was on target as a K-1st grader, but Rachel and Isaiah only being in the US for less than 4 and less than 3 years as older school kiddos, this was BIG!!! We are so proud of all of them, and love to listen to them as they read, sound out words, puzzle over "Explode the Code" phonics rules they've learned which don't apply to a lot of the words now in front of them ( and I repeat myself often telling them that IF I , the MAMMA, had written the rules for English, a LOT of those rules would not be there in the first place to confuse the reader!!!) but its a lot of fun. I loved teaching them to read, and LOVE reaping the benefits!
There was only an encouraging "HANG IN THERE" email about Daniel on Friday night very late, so for now, still no booked reservations for my flight to Liberia. Pleae keep praying, we know its coming!!! We did receive some new, and honestly , troubling, photos of Daniel. His precious head has grown markedly since late March. God knows this better than all the humans who care for him, I KNOW THAT, I TRUST THAT, but like with any unpleasant situation in the life of any of my other children, my Mamma heart aches to help him, and to get help for him!!
We are still fundraising for the sum total of having all Junior and Diamoh's adoptions on tap as well as Daniel's. We've borrowed, we're paying back on a lon already, we received a matching grant, a grant from Shepherd's Crook went to start paying Daniel's expenses, but we are still needing to keep working on fund raisers. Our church is small, and we are very heavily into raising funds for a family who will be going into full time missions next year. This is a GREAT and VERY SUCCESSFUL undertaking for which I am thrilled. Being a smaller body, this means fewer places for funds to be sent, and we are totally in support of what and how its all about right now. Today, an announcement was made in church that for anyone who sends money in for our fund, the church will match those donations up to a total of $1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cried. I was not expecting this whatsoever. On my "to-do " list this week is setting up a meeting with the Sorority/Fraternity commission (or whatever its called) at OSU to see if one of those clubs would want to be our sponsor and help us, scheduling a car wash or two or three, checking with the Schwanz frozen food comapny because they too do fund raisers. Plane fare above the agency fees is still needing to be raised for Junior and Diamoh's tickets. This blessing from our church body was huge to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If this is something any of you want to be part of, please let me know. I'll send you the address.
Naomi has her 2nd of three or four check-ups with her Pedi-Gastroenterologist tomorrow to assess her Hep B status. Her viral load coutns were up so high last check-up; the doctor upped her med. doseage in hopes of slowing the drug resistant mutant strain of virus which lives in my 7 year old daughter's body.By Thursday we should know how that increased dose, along with much prayer, has affected her counts. She shows no signs whatsoever of being ill, other than when we get the lab results back, and watch the up and down, mostly up, rates of viral increase. I'm so glad that she is here where she is able to get the best meds, get excellent care and monitoring, most of all where we can pray over her and all those involved in her care. SO thankful that God turned things around for us way back in fall of 2001 even before she was born, preparing her for our family, setting our hearts in "ready" mode for our baby girl!!!
A side trip for us tomorrow is that we are going to visit our cyber friend ABBY, for whom we have prayed for a year, but whom we've not been able to meet in person for a whole lot of sick little girl reasons. UNLESS Abby hada downturn over the weekend, we will get to hang out with her after Naomi finishes her doctor visit and lab work.
(See my side bar, if yo're new to reading my blog...ABBY is 4 and has a particularly aggresive form of leukemia. She's on chemotherapy right now and life is always a challenge. Her family's testimony of thier faith and God's faithfulness to them never ceases to challenge me in our family and other parts of life.
I saw photos from several people who were /are in Liberia now. HOW I ached for Junior and Diamoh and Daniel!!!! There are no answers right now about the suspension in the big picture, and no final answers in the short term for Daniel YET, but we are believing that ALL THREE of our Liberian children will be home before our US authorization expires and needs renewing!!
God's faithfulness to us, His mercies which are new every morning: this is what keeps me walking on water ,and my eyes fixed on my Heavenly Father! I don't have answers, can't "do" anything in myself ....but I CAN trust God with what He has given us and I intend to keep on doing just that. It doesn't matter what anything "looks like". What matters is that regardless: my life shows how much I love my God, how I long to please Him in my responses and reactions, in my "for real" self. That the parts of me which would be angry, anxious, disappointed, inappropriately reactive get submitted to God's authority to be refined and made into responses that please Him and reflect who He is in my life. These issues concerning children are certainly GREAT TOOLS FOR GOD TO USE.......HE has had my heart "from " 'hello' "!!!